Friday 28 September 2012

'Rushmore' illustration

I enjoyed drawing the 'Annie Hall' illustration so much I thought I might do some more of my favourite films so here's 'Rushmore' which I'm seeing tonight at the Prince Charles Cinema as part of a Wes Anderson all-nighter.  When I'm working on detailed pieces it's nice to just change it up a bit and draw something quickly without having to think about it too much. 


Thursday 27 September 2012

Wednesday 26 September 2012

'Two Weeks in France'

While I was in France in August I tried to do a daily diary illustration.  It was going to be a zine but I'm too busy to get it printed at the moment so I'll be posting them up here for the next couple of weeks.  This one was inspired by a book I was reading at the time called 'The Selected Works of T.S Spivet' by Reif Larsen which has a beautiful illustrated cover by Joe McClaren.  I applied (stole) his concept for my journeys around France.  



Friday 21 September 2012

'Come Back From San Francisco' early-bird print promotion

As promised yesterday here is your opportunity to buy my new Magnetic Fields inspired screen-print 'Come Back From San Francisco' at a reduced price - click here.  As I mention in the listing the print hasn't been made yet but I'm getting the folk at Get A Grip to do it and they always do a fantastic job.  The promotion is to gauge numbers and interest as much as anything - the print run will almost certainly be fifty unless demand is unprecedented - and I'm hoping to dispatch the prints mid October.

This promotion will last for no more than a few days, the final price will be around £20. Thanks for the support as always.

'Stanley Kubrick' print session

Here are some session photos from yesterday when I attempted to print my Stanley Kubrick linocut with some notes more for my reference than anything else but feel free to leave helpful comments. It didn't go as well as I hoped but I did learn some important lessons along the way.  I think.

I used cheap block-printing ink (Ocaldo) which may have been my first mistake.  Rolling it evenly and getting decent coverage was an art in itself - too much ink mean the print lost definition - too little ink meant the print was a bit patchy/distressed.
























I was a little careless when rolling the ink onto the lino initially which meant I inked the border which I didn't want to show on the finished print.  I'd purposely left a border thinking that it would stop the roller from dropping into the cut areas of the lino when rolling ink onto it but what actually happened was the frame created creases in the print paper from applying so much pressure with the spoon.  I think I probably need to remove the border altogether and be more concise when rolling ink onto the lino, perhaps even cut the lino quite tightly around the artwork.




















The ink sticks quite nicely to the paper so it was quite easy to gently pull the paper off the lino and see if I needed to apply more pressure to certain areas.  I thought this would cause registration issues but it didn't appear to.


Below is one of the better prints.  It's possible a little too heavily inked but at least the coverage is better.



So what did I learn?  I think I may need to use better ink, I need to get a proper baren and perhaps even a cheap press.  Any ideas if this one is any good?  Also I need to stop being such a control freak/so anal and recognise that people actually like linocut prints for their hand-made faults.  

'Our Stanley' will be available to buy very soon!

Thursday 20 September 2012

'Come Back From San Francisco' illustration

This is my contribution to the brilliant Magnetic Fields inspired website How Fucking Romantic for the song 'Come Back From San Francisco'.  Some of you may remember I did the line-work way back in July but it took a while to colour (two months apparently...).  The screen-prints will be coming very soon and tomorrow I'll be doing an early bird reduced price pre-order for them so keep your eyes peeled. 

Big thanks to Julia Scheele for letting me take part in such an ace project.

Wednesday 19 September 2012

'Annie Hall' illustration

I went to see 'Annie Hall' at the Prince Charles Cinema last night.  It's one of my favourite films.  I fell in love with Diane Keaton all over again.  

It was neat. 

Thursday 13 September 2012

France

Apologies for the lengthy silence.  I've been on holiday to France, moved house and started a new part-time job as an Art Technician at a school.  It's been a little hectic.  I will make amends.

I have some rough and ready daily diary illustrations from two weeks in France to upload, some exciting news regarding an art collective I've become a member of and plenty of other artwork to upload but for now here is me at Serge's house in Paris where I left some of my prints.  They may still be there - who knows...